


246. holy water

by piggy09



Series: The Sestre Daily Drabble Project [111]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2016-10-19
Packaged: 2018-08-23 08:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8320708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09
Summary: “Thank you for taking me to the ocean,” Helena says.





	

“Shitty day to come to the beach,” Sarah mutters, but Helena isn’t listening. The sky is lead-grey and the water is freezing and the sand goes on forever, empty of shrieking children delighting in their sand castles and games of beach volleyball and happy dogs and everything stories told Helena would be on the beach. It’s just sand and grey water.

“I love it,” she says seriously. “Thank you for taking me to the ocean.”

“It’s not the ocean,” Sarah says, running a hand through her hair in a sort of exasperation. “It’s just a bloody huge lake. But we’re not drivin’ ten hours to see the ocean, yeah? This is gonna have to do.”

“I love it,” Helena says again. She is trying very hard to make it clear, how much she likes it. But Sarah is lost in one of those Sarah-dazes again, where she sticks her hands in her pockets and looks miserable. So Helena doesn’t think she’ll get it.

Instead of telling Sarah things that Sarah won’t want to hear, she sits down in the sand and starts pulling off her shoes. The boots are stubborn. They won’t come off.

“You’re not going in, are you?” Sarah says, sounding alarmed. “You’re gonna freeze your bloody tits off, Helena, it’s _not_ swimming weather.”

“I am going,” Helena says. She is very certain.

“ _No_ , meathead,” Sarah says, but she is too late. Helena’s shoes are off and she manages to hop down to the water, tugging up her pants as she goes so that her ankles and calves are bare. She splashes out into the water. The silver of it shatters as soon as her foot gets in.

Then she _screams_ at the top of her lung and sprints out of the water, all the way back up the sand to where Sarah is.

“It’s cold!” she yells. She can’t be quiet anymore. Her brain is all exclamation points, like a text message from Cosima. “ _Sestra!_ ”

“Yeah.”

“It’s cold!”

“Helena,” Sarah says, looking very tired and also like she’s fighting to contain a smile, “I _told_ you it was gonna be cold.”

“It was so cold!”

“I know.”

Helena searches her brain for something else to think. Her feet feel – bad. “Cold!” she says again. Pauses. Considers. “I still like it, though, I think.”

Sarah’s eyebrows raise towards her hairline. “Congrats,” she says. “Thought that would’ve scared you off.”

“No,” Helena says. “I am very strong. I have strong feet.” She holds them out, wiggles her toes emphatically to prove her point.

“Sure do,” Sarah says. “Think you can find a shell for Kira?”

“Yes,” Helena says. She tilts her head to the side. “You will help, yes?”

“Depends,” Sarah says. “You gonna splash me if I get close to the water?”

“No,” Helena says, struggling very hard to sound sincere and trustworthy and not like the sort of person who was definitely planning on splashing Sarah if she got close to the water. She tilts her chin down towards her throat, widens her eyes. Sarah’s face says she is doing an absolutely terrible job.

“I’ll see if I can find any shells _away_ from the water, then,” Sarah says, and she starts walking parallel to the sea. Helena ducks closer to the water, but doesn’t see much except garbage. _She_ likes garbage, but not for Kira.

“Used to take her here, actually,” Sarah says, picking up a trail of thought that they had both dropped. “Don’t think she’d remember, she was too small. Gave her those – float things, the ones you strap on baby’s arms.”

“So they don’t sink,” Helena says.

“Yeah.”

“We could all come back,” Helena says. “When there is sunshine. I will wear float things on my arms, so that I do not sink when I go swimming.”

When she looks up from her sandy feet Sarah’s looking at her, something fond in the corner of her mouth. “Maybe,” she says, words soft around the edges. “That’d be nice.”

“Mhm,” Helena says. “And I will not splash you. At all.”

“Now I know you’re lyin’,” Sarah says, but she laughs and so it’s okay. They keep walking along the water; Helena’s feet splash in it, sometimes, but she’s getting used to it. Eventually, it stops feeling cold.

**Author's Note:**

> ...THAT'S NOT A GOOD SIGN, KIDDO
> 
> Thanks for reading! Please kudos + comment if you enjoyed! :)


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